Project Summary/Abstract This S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant application requests $500,000 toward the purchase of an enterprise research data storage system at Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation (CCRF). A commitment to provide an enterprise data storage system has become an integral part of optimization of IT support of basic and translational research. CCRF is the research arm of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and ranks among the top three pediatric research centers nationally in amount of extramural research support. It is home to approximately 500 faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and is dedicated to improving the health of children everywhere through research and education. In FY 2008, faculty employed by CCRF received $131,619,570 to support their research. Of this total, $101,660,245 or 77% was from NIH. The research data storage system will be integrated into shared resources of the CCRF research data center and will be managed by faculty and staff of the Division of Biomedical Informatics. It permits CCRF to meet rapidly growing demands for enterprise data storage and to tailor policies with regard to data backup and security differently than is required for clinical and administrative storage systems. This will result in cost savings, greater flexibility to support different types of research, and ability to implement appropriate levels of security depending on data type. Biomedical research projects typically generate large quantities of data from many different sources. Accruing, integrating, and mining these data streams in a secure, effective way is a major challenge. Success is facilitated by enterprise data management systems. Priority will be given to support of research cores that contain shared instruments and generate approximately 39 TB of data per year, approximately 80% will be generated by NIH- funded research programs. Most data from externally funded research must be retained for periods of between 5 and 10 years, so storage requirements are very large and grow over time. The data system CCRF proposes to purchase is scaleable and permits the institution to expand capacity in a cost effective way. For the purposes of this application, focus will be upon the needs of several specific NIH-funded programs, although it is the aggregate need of multiple cores and funded research programs that justify high capacity enterprise systems. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation ranks among the top three pediatric research centers nationally in amount of extramural research support and is an integral part of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a major teaching affiliate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. It is home to approximately 500 faculty of the College and is dedicated to improving the health of children everywhere through research and education. Investment of NCRR funds to improve research data anagement will strengthen the Medical Center's ability to conduct the research so ecessary to fulfill its mission.